Good Samaritans become harbinger of hope for needy patients requiring regular dialysis
KALABURAGI; A group of good Samaritans have become harbinger of hope for the needy patients, particularly from the poorer sections of the society, who required life saving dialysis treatment regularly by providing access to healthy and hygiene treatment facility free of cost.
These kind hearted persons led by social activist and businessman Mr Sharnu Pappa have established a Charitable Dialysis Centre, in the name of Smt Poornima P M Biradar, wife of a well known skin specialist Dr P M Biradar, in the heart of the city under the aegis of the Mahadasohi Sharnabasaveshwara Trust. While the dialysis centres operated in the private hospitals charge on an average Rs 3000 per schedule of dialysis from the patients, this centre provides free service and the patients are required only to bring the consumables which costs around Rs 600 per schedule.
The Centre has performed more than 15,000 diasysis schedules without a single day of break in the past four years of its existence, which itself is a record of sorts for a private initiative in this secto.
Smt Poornima P M Biradar Charitable Dialysis Centre is the only private initiative which has survived four long years to provide free treatment to the needy patients in the entire Kalaburagi region and all other such centres opened with the promise of offering free services to the patients have closed their establishment immediately after few months of their operation, mainly due to the exorbitant operational costs involved in running the dialysis unit.
Mr Pappa said that the main reason for starting the dialysis centre was to help the poorer sections of the patients who cannot afford the costly life saving treatment and witnessing the plight the patients like Kashinath, who is undergoing dialysis for the past seven years and others selling away their valuables and landed property to avail the treatment continuously.
Mr Pappa said a total sum of Rs 70 lakhs has been invested in the purchase of the five dialysis unit costing a total of Rs 40 lakhs, Rs 10 lakhs for installing a RO water treatment plant which is a must , Rs 15 lakhs fo the infranstructure facilities and another Rs five lakhs for the furniture and other facilities in the centre. Apart from this the recurring expenditure of operating the centre was around Rs 2.5 lakhs every month.
Mr Pappa said that Initially his likeminded friends numbering around 10 contributed Rs Two lakhs each and Dr P M Biradar contributed around Rs 12 lakhs for creating the infrastructure facilities and purchasing the dialysis machines. “I had to dispose of two residential plots and few gold ornaments and dig into my personal savings to bear the cost of the purchase of the dialysis machines as well meeting the monthly expenditure of running the centre….. My friends also chipped in with donations regularly to ensure the continuous operation of the centre without any interruption”.
All the efforts by Mr Pappa to get financial assistance from the state government has not borne any fruits so far and even the funds of Rs 5 lakhs granted from the MLA fund by Gulbarga South MLA Mr Allamprabhu Patil and Rs 3 lakhs granted by BJP MLC B G Patil has also not been realized so far and the files were pending at the different levels at the concerned offices. “At present around 30 patients regularly avail the dialysis facility in the centre and it would be of great help if the government comes forward to help us in running the centre uninterruptedly”.